My Female Alpha

THIRTY FOUR

emery

Iron. My tongue curls in my mouth to escape the metallic flavor. I slowly come to my senses, lifting my lead-filled head. My eyelids rouse themselves like two metal shutters. I realize my throat feels papery and that random aches are springing up all over my body.

My vision seems to work before my hearing because the moment I can see straight, a pair of alligator eyes are staring right back. I don't hear my scream, but I feel it rip its way out of me.

The lime green eyes are paired with fair, freckled skin and a pink-lipped smirk. My ears pop all at once and I can hear ragged breathing. I flinch away from the woman, realizing the breathing belongs to me.

I glance around and try to move my arms, but they're tied behind me. Trees surround us and dapple out what seems to be the rising sun.

The woman laughs. I recognize it from before. She's the one claiming to be Lenora's ex. I take a look at her naked figure and try to resist the stroke of envy that lashes at my insides. She is tall with blindingly light blonde hair and she's thin but athletically so. Her hips are spacious for her slender frame and meet together over an untrimmed, blonde mound. Even more devastatingly, she has massive breasts with palm-sized rosy nipples. They're hard from the cool air hanging around us. Long lashes frame her exotic eyes that follow my every move.

"Mornin', sunshine." Her smile guts me. "How'd you like some water?"

I lick at my lips. I'm aware of the situation enough not to speak. There's no telling what this bitch wants from me. She's a rogue, she's Lenora's ex, and she wants to make Lenora her slave? I'm probably at the top of her hit list.

"I'll take that as a yes," she says. She turns around and spins back, throwing something at me before I can react.

Icy cold water slams into my face. I'm knocked breathlessly into the tree I'm tied to, whacking my head. I gape at her as the water seeps into my clothes.

She squats down in front of me. Her eyes gleam like those of a snake, stunning and lethal.

"You're not her type, you know," she tells me, "but she has always liked someone to save. She doesn't like humans." A long, pale finger reaches out to poke at my neck. I recoil with a wince. "Looks like she did more than save you, hmm? That's a mark if I've ever seen one."

"What do you want from me?" I grumble. The wind passes by us and sucks my shirt onto my skin. I shiver at the coolness.

The woman runs a hand up the side of my face. I swallow hard. She's far more terrifying to me than Lenora. Lenora might beat the shit out of someone, but this woman looks like she would cut my eyes out without a second thought.

"Not a damn thing." She smiles again. "You're just bait. Delicious, little human bait. I hope you're still alive by the time she gets here."

I try not to shudder in fear, but it's an automatic response. This woman's psychotic.

"Ara!" another woman calls out from somewhere I can't see.

The woman twists away from me as she stands up. While she's distracted, I jerk on my hands. I can't feel them at all, only feel the tension of them against my body. I wonder how long my hands have been tied up and how long I was unconscious.

"The Beta was spotted circling," a smaller tan-skinned woman tells Ara. "There might be more."

"Trying to trap me," Ara says, casting a look down at me. "Your mate is coming for you after all, little human."

Fuck. I squeeze my eyes shut.

I don't know what I expected. Of course, Lenora would come for me. She always does. While part of me is comforted that she's trying to save me, I'm haunted by Ara's words. She wants to enslave Lenora. I can't even begin to fathom what that means but I want to make sure it never happens.

"Don't come," I plead under my breath.

Ara laughs. "You're adorable, but you obviously don't know her."

"You don't know her," I snap, eyes flying open.

"Oh, little girl. You are the one who has no idea who Lenny is. And you'll never understand. That's just how it is. You'll never understand our lifestyle or our ways. You'll always just be a good little fuck."

Her words bit into me more than they had a right. Lenora picked me. She wasn't pining after this woman, who I had never even heard of.

"We're soul mates," I say, my last shot at winning this pathetic argument. "You're just the piece of old ass she got rid of."

I can't believe the words came out of my mouth or where they came from at all. If my hands were free, I'd have slapped them over my lips.

The mask of haughty victory blinks from Ara's face. Within the time it takes me to say "Fuck," my bindings are cut off and I'm being hauled to my feet. I cry out while blood pours back into my arms and legs.

"You have more bite than it looks, little girl," she snarls in my face, spittle landing on my cheeks and mouth. I squirm to get away but she clutches me against her in a vise.

"She's coming!" someone yells.

Ara's mask slips back into place. She grins deviously at me and I swear I see a forked tongue twitch behind her white teeth. I'm spun around so that my back is nestled into her front. Her breasts jab into me, the nipple scraping my back through my damp shirt.

"You know the thing about mates," she purrs into my ear. "They can be rejected. You could reject Lenora. She could reject you. The bond between you would wither away."

A black wolf charges out of the brush. Its charging body is so graceful, each lunge carefully calculated and confident. Its eyes narrow on us in focus. It'll reach us in thirty seconds if that.

"But," Ara continues to whisper in my ear, "you can also make someone your mate." She drops her mouth to my mark and sucks on it. I drag in a ragged breath, shocked by the instant tingles that flood my pussy. She nibbles up my neck to my ear. "Anyone can be a mate, in reality."

My thighs squeeze together. I don't understand what's happening but I need it to end. I need it to end now.

The black wolf slides to a stop just inches away and shifts. A lean human figure takes its place and steals my breath. Lenora heaves before me. Her beautiful blue orbs blaze with a rage I have yet to witness. It makes me visibly shake. I could cry at the sight of her, standing here and looking all resilient.

"What the fuck is this, Arabella?" she snarls.

"I had to get your attention somehow," Ara speaks in a saccharine sweet voice. "If I'd known you had a mate, I would have killed her weeks ago. It seems my sources didn't get the full story right."

"Probably because I ripped their fucking throats out." Lenora's lip peels back in disgust. "You have no ethics. You are beyond saving. To stoop to this? Look at what you've lowered yourself to. Kidnapping the Alpha's mate. Such a helpless bitch move."

Her cutting voice is easily at par with Ara's. I'm getting more hopeful by the second. This crazy rogue might be terrifying but my mate can handle it. She can handle anything.

Ara's arm around my waist cinches tighter. I claw at it until she bites my earlobe.

"I'll break off those fingers if you don't stop," she hisses.

I suck in sharply and meet Lenora's eyes frantically. Her mouth is set into a firm line.

"You're right about one thing," Ara says. "I truly have no ethics. If I did, I would kill your mate. At least then your sorrow would be short-lived." She kisses my neck again and I squirm again. "But that just won't do. You'll just want to kill me, won't you? Oh, Lenny. You should have killed me while you had the chance. Now I'm going to make you wish you were dead."

She laughs once, airy and yet malicious. Then I feel her hot mouth on my neck, followed by pain. I scream.

Lenora yells, "No!"

It's too late. Fire spreads through me from where she's bitten. My muscles seize with cramps and then all at once I go limp.